I posted the following on RC Universe as a "build along" article. I was a little hesitant as an artist to show the progress of a project like these since quite a bit can go wrong and the whole process could be for not. Sailor however went extremely well. I hope you find it intersting:
Choosing the subject
I’ve had quite a few request for a British pilot from WWII and Sailor Malan was a suggestion, after reading about him, the more I liked him. He was a South African who led the No. 74 Squadron during the height of the Battle of Britain. Under his leadership the 74th became one of the RAF’s best units. Malan scored 27 kills, seven shared destroyed, three probably destroyed and 16 damaged.
After surviving the war he became involved in the anti-apartheid movement in his country.
So Adolph Malan it is. I like his character, he has a great look, and I wanted to sculpt a pilot from the Battle of Britain in authentic gear. First I dug up the following references, since we will be sculpting him “in the round”, the more pics from different angles the better.
Sculpting the head
I sculpt my figures with Sculpey. It is a polymer clay that stays pliable until cooked in the oven. I always start with the head, and attempt to get the figure to look like the subject as close as possible. I probably don’t have to do that, but it adds so much more to the piece and besides, it is fun!
I just roll out an egg shaped ball and started drawing in the features. Keeping special attention to keeping the correct proportions. I got to going so fast, I almost forgot to take a photo of the head in the rough stage.
Next up is gettting the helmet and goggles knocked out. But first wanted to work a little more on the eyes. Defining them and making sure they look like Sailor’s. You can see the small tool I use, which is a toothpick with a loop of wire, from a wire brush, glued on the end. This really works well and cuts the clay out very cleanly. You can get an idea of how small the detail is on this when you compare the head to a quarter. With the helmet, I lined out the seams, then
simulated stitching with a very small pounce wheel. Next slight wrinkles are introduced to give the helmet the characteristic of a leather helmet. I know I’m doing something right when a leather helmet starts to look like leather without painting it.
The goggles are tough. They are the Mark IIIa goggles, not to be confused with the Mark IIIs which had a much wider leather frame around the lenses. Everything has to be very straight and symetrical, and although the aluminum helps as a guide, the down side is that the clay does not want to stick to it, so I have to be very careful not to pull all the work off the aluminum. After working on that my eyeballs are about ready to roll out of my head! But Sailor’s eyes are looking good.
I discovered a way to impart a grain texture on the leather flight helmet and am really excited about that. It is very definitive and that texture will really pop when painted!
The majority of the time was just getting the size of the earphones correct. After trying out several sized cylinders and comparing them over and over to the photo, I arrived at a size I thought looked about right. Then just got one detailed out and smoothed into the helmet.
Time to get “medieval” with the details! Knocked in both headphones, with the wires underneath. Will have to see how that works out with the rest of the body in the future, but will try to keep the wires in some form. Finished up the goggles with the little bits and pieces and stitching. And lastly the strap for the goggles. Fun, fun stuff!!!
Finishing up the flight helmet - RAF Type C non-wired, specifically. With goggle straps, and the back part of the helmet. Wires from the head phone speakers and chin straps will have to wait until I get started on the body so I can see where these can go. These little things take longer than expected due to how carefully I have to handle the head now. Don’t want a big dent or finger print in anything!
By the way the RAF Type C flight helmet and Mark III goggles, were worn by quite a few of the American pilots as well, so Sailor’s head could be used for an American USAAF European Theatre pilot as well.
Sculpting the Torso
Before calling the head finished, I want to start on the torso and get that knocked out. Man, today was one of those days where you don’t seem to get much done, but in hindsight, a lot was accomplished. I spent the entire morning mixing clay, and part of the afternoon looking for reference on the life perserver or “Mae West”. I didn’t know that the Brits gave the life preserver that name, but that is pretty much how it is referred to in all the documentation I could find. Gotta love their sense of humour!
It is fairly difficult to find Battle of Britain war time shots, simply because there weren’t a lot taken because the pilots had a world to save! But I think I’ve found enough on-line to get an idea of what is going on there in the front. Since there are no photos of the pilot from the front while sitting in the Spitfire, (how would they have gotten that shot anyway?) I’ll have to “fill in the pieces” from side views and from what I know is there from references. The aluminum tube is the air tube for the Mae West. It looks like that might get covered up by the parachute belts, but I’m going to try to have some of that sticking out. That touch of red will look great on the finished painted pilot!
Have spent some time checking and double checking the fit and proportions of the Mae West, and parachute harness belts to the picture of Malan in the cockpit. Then I double check those with other references. Interesting observation. When sculpting the Mae West on Sailor’s right shoulder, according to the reference, it was fairly flat and smooth. When sculpting the way it lays on his left shoulder, in the main reference, it is bunched up, puffed up and more wrinkled. What the hey? Then it dawned on me that the reference for the right shoulder was standing, gravity pulled it downward and wasn’t bunched up with belts. Also, it seems like the genuine articles were more wrinkled than those that were used in the BBC movie First Light (An awesome show and book by the way - Google BBC First Light you won’t be disappointed!). I snagged quite a bit of hard to find shots of the gear from screen caps.
Ideally, we would have a shot of Sailor in his Spitfire from all 360 degress. Since that doesn’t exist, I have to create articles from scratch, make sure that the “look” makes sense - does that strap continue on? Would it fall that way? Is it wrinkled enough? etc. As opposed from copying directly from a single source. It is challenging, but fun! So far so good.
HANDS!
Hands are very expressive. When sculpting them, I sometimes become expressive as well, however the forum etiquette prevents me from recording my “expressions”!
There is just a lot going on in hands, they are small, several protrusions, and they can easily look wrong. My method is to keep carving away until nothing looks weird. Gloves make the job a little easier, because the bulk removes some of the subtlety, but also add more detail. Hopefully, when done sculpting the gloves, they look like hands are in them! So hands are a challenge. But when complete, they compliment the whole piece. Here is the left hand so far. I couldn’t find reference for what kind of gloves Sailor wore, so I chose the large “gauntlet” type. I like the color and they look like they would do the job very well.
Sailor is checking out his new hands. It is always a mystery when a sculpt starts as to what pose the hands will take. I knew that if he is a British pilot, there is a very, very good chance he will be holding the unique “split stick” control column of the Spitfire and Hurricane. I read that their cockpits were so small that the geometry was a problem for the control column to get full travel for roll control. This was solved by making the control column rotate at about mid-stick instead of from the the floor. Genius! For elevator control, back and forth, the sticks rotation point was at the floor. American pilots said it took a little to get used to, but felt natural after a bit.
With this type of stick, Sailor will have a bit unique grip for the control column. The only way to figure out if grip is natural looking, was to fashion a circular grip, 1/5 scale, and see how that will work. I know my customers will have complete cockpits, so I want Sailor to plop right into position with his hand able to slip onto the control column. With some major “persuasion” of the right arm to get the anatomy correct (notice were the arm has separated from the torso, no big deal just a little fix), it looks like this configuration will work.
I won’t cast the split control stick permanently in Sailor’s hand. With the variable “scale” of some kits it may be off a bit and some customers may want to put him in a plane that didn’t have that distinctive type of stick. If the control column isn’t a ring type-grip, it will look like he is getting ready to grip it.
The big push to complete the head. I wanted the head complete, and hardened so that I can finally finish out the area that the head/neck is going to mount onto the torso. I think the last 10% of finishing a piece takes about 75% of the work! It essentially amounts to “polishing” and refining edges, dents and dings. The Sculpey clay is not very firm so things can and do distort, so that has to be fixed. I really like the wires that extend out of the headphones. Since this is eventually going to be cast from a mold, you can’t leave undercuts. Anything like a wire or tube structure, can not have space behind it. It has to extend to the neck. The trick is to do this and still have the structure look “natural”. I think I did that. Here are the shots all the way around the head after the clay was hardened in the oven.
I was really excited about how the headphones turned out and the wires. Notice the “cloth” texture on the wires that mimic the real thing pretty closely. Remember the “wire” is less than an 1/8” thick! Unlike a drawing, this has to look “right” from ALL angles. That is the challenge and fun of sculpting!
TEXTURE. This is an area that I have really explored with this pilot figure. The most challenging thing about putting texture on a sculpture this small is being able to take a picture of it! The helmet has a leather grain to it. The headphones are smooth, with a bit of texture in the cloth insulated wires. The really neat and extra challenging effect was a SKIN texture on Sailor’s face. If you look closely you can see a slight dimpling just like real skin, only 1/5 scale of course. I am excited to see what effect, if any, this will have when painted. Also note that Sailor has eyelashes! These actual textures should really pop and add an unprecedented level of detail when the figure is painted.
A marathon weekend session was in order to get the torso in shape and close to finished. I discovered that I kind of got ahead of myself in some places - like icing the cake before its baked - so some detail had to be deleted to make sure the underlying structure made sense. I redid the scarf and added cloth texture to that. And then on to the safety belts.
Wow! Those take time. They have to symmetrical, consistent size and depth...and then there is the stitching. Overall, I am pleased with the result. I really like the bundled safety belts on the shoulders.
The break away tape that wrapped around the belt looks very convincing.
Sculpting wrinkles and folds. When I first started sculpting pilots, I never was too thrilled about doing the clothing. Honestly, it is kind of intimidating. When painting a portrait, that was the area you kind of got to “fudge”. With sculpting, you can’t get away with that. It ALL has to be there. With the photo of Sailor in the cockpit, I have a good reference for the folds on his left arm.
But what happens when you go around the arm where the camera doesn’t show us? What happens then? After sculpting several of these figures, I’ve kind of gotten a feel for the physics of how cloth reacts (in no way an expert at it) and by seeing it on one side, I can guess pretty well what is happening as I go around the arm. Of course the final test is... does it look right?
I show a bit of how I sculpt that. One thing I do is rough in the “high ground” with long pieces of clay- or as my boys call them “worms”. After getting the “worms” roughed in, I blend them out into the surface. To keep track of the folds in relation to the photo, I number them, so as not to get confused. After smoothing it all out, I then added the texture to simulate the wool the RAF flying suit was made of. I added a picture of the right arm so it doesn’t get jealous. I like to add as much depth to the folds as the production process allows so when the figure is painted, the cloth areas will give a very good representation of actual cloth.
I would contend that it looks more real than actual cloth simply because real cloth at this scale can't fold as intricately which makes it looks "puffy" and not scale.
BOOTS
- Sculpting one boot is no problem, BUT sculpting a matching boot that is a mirror image of the other one... that is a different story! It takes time but eventually happens. Boots and shoes have a certain character to them as well. Are they new or worn? I decided to have these have the “lived in” look instead of a pair right off the shelf. I haven’t added all the stitching or texture as of yet. I need to work out how the torso mates to the legs, touch up the torso and bake it.
Then back to the legs and see how they mate to the boots. And then when it all fits together, make sure it looks right!
All the major sculpting is complete. I have baked all the components and the next step is to make the moldsl.
Molds for Sailor’s Head
The process of creating a pilot is fraught with danger. The soft clay could get dropped or dinged, the hardened clay could be drop and broken, overbaked and cracked. In the mold making phase – the mold material could fail to set up leaving a gooey mess that is almost impossible to clean up, pits or bubbles that render the mold unusable. Happily none of that has happened so far with Sailor...knock on wood!
To make the first half of a two-part mold, we have to “mask-off” one half of the head with clay (the “masking clay is terra-cotta colored in the pics, the “plug” is grey hardened clay). I decide where the seams will go, trying to hide them as much as possible from the top and front viewpoints - the areas that the pilots will be viewed the most in the cockpit. Placing the clay up to the seam-line and smoothing it to the sculpture so that it is sealed is the key. The neater the work, the neater the seam- the neater the seam, the less flashing to remove, the less flashing to remove equals less work for Lyle when casting these guys!!
Of all things, we get to play with LEGOS! What? Well, Legos make quick and easy mold boxes for the smaller stuff. With two boys under the age of 5, I’ve got plenty of ‘em around the house. I create a box of legos around the plug and clay and then seal the clay to the edges of the Lego box.
What you see is the red clay around the hardened grey head (plug).
We will now pour the pink mold material into this area to make the first half of our mold. There is a little part of me that gets distressed seeing something you’ve spent hours creating get slowly swallowed up by this pink goo.
Hopefully it will cure! Did I add enough catalyst? What if I didn’t seal everything up and it all runs out the bottom? At about $2 an ounce that would be an expensive mess! Nothing we can do now b ut wait for about 24 hours for the mold material to cure.
First half has cured! We flip over the lego box and dig out all the clay from the back half of the plug. All, and I mean every bit, has to be removed or it will become a part of the cast piece.
Once the clay is all removed and the plug is clean, the Mold-to-Mold release is brushed on. This is a VERY important step. If this step doesn’t happen, the original sculpture is encapsulated inside the mold and has to be cut out... and being a professional, that uh, has never, uh, happened to me... much.
After the mold release has dried, I pour the second half of the mold. After a 24 hour wait, I remove the Legos and we have a mold!
My apologies in advance to any mothers actually reading this, but if there was ever a moment in this process that is close to the birth of a child, here it is...and no epidural!
After separating the two halves of the mold everything looks GREAT! No undue bubbles formed in the mold so lets pour some resin and see what we have.... and we have a PERFECT replica of the original sculpt!! Note how minor the flashing is. Yep, this is fun and almost magical stuff, all the detail and texture is replicated exactly.
Today I finally got to paint on Sailor. I was really excited to see him in something other than monochrome! I first cleaned the resin cast with soap and water to wash away any mold release. This is VERY IMPORTANT so don’t forget to clean your figures before starting to paint or the paint will come off in later stages.
Next I airbrush a very thin layer of light skin tone. This gives a bit of “tooth” to the paint for the next step which is PASTELs! Yep, something I recently discovered. Pastels are actually one of the most lightfast pigments you can get (ever see any faded on the shelves in the store?) since they are almost completely pigment. I take the colors of Pastel I am going to use and rub them on a small piece of sandpaper, which then becomes my pallet.
I simply brush on, LIGHTLY, the colors I want, darker to lighter to get the correct shading.
I know I’m doing something right when I start to slightly get a creepy sensation that Sailor could almost talk to me.
One time I had several pilot heads painted and my wife came in to talk to me but said she couldn’t because all of those realistic little heads looking at her was creeping her out. So I now keep several on my desk at all times! (Just kidding!)
After the Pastels, I then spray a coat of Dulcoat to protect it.
The eyes and the eyebrows are then painted. The sculpted in “hair” makes this really easy to do. This is where the extra time in sculpting pays off!
Then the helmet and goggles, which start out black and are then “dry-brushed” with the matching browns to simulate leather. Again, textures really help make quick work of this and add to the realism. The helmet and goggles are a “symphony” of different colored leathers! Very rich looking when completed. And lastly the metallic snaps and buttons are painted. Whole thing is given a coat of Dullcoat to protect.
I just wanted to let you know how amazed I am with your work. The degree of detail and your quest for improvement, as well as your endless creativity, used to solve each of the intrincate challenges that the tasks of your work keep presenting you, are, I dare to say, moving.
I spent some hours at your website/blog today and I couldn't leave without saying how interesting and fun this experience was.
I started at YouTube, watching some RC planes videos (I never had one in my entire life but always liked them) and I watched a video of a RC dogfight between two WWI planes. One of the planes had a funny pilot made by Slimline. I found it interesting and googled it to know more, then I visited other stores to see more models and finally found your pilots.
I have to say that after reading this post,
I can say I know which are the best scale RC pilots available.
Thank you for your nice work and for being a generous person who doesn't mind of sharing your impressive talent and expertise.
Have an awesome 2012.
Marcelo, from Brazil
Posted by: Marcelo C | January 03, 2012 at 04:45 PM
I spent many hours of my art college days wandering the sculpting rooms after hours. The cloth covered figures were eerie. Seeing your sequential photos of Sailor mirrors that eeriness. OUTSTANDING work when a grape-sized head can emote so much feeling! Great work. Great article. Thanks!
Posted by: Rick Daugherty | January 20, 2012 at 07:03 AM